There is a neat little trick combining this card with Eye of the Djinn to get a based skill test +6 (two copies to get +7) once per term using Eye of the Djinn's ability. The three investigators who can make use of this combo Tony Morgan, "Skids" O'Toole, Leo Anderson will all appreciate it.

-- Update: after checking with Fantasy Flight AHC about the ruling. The combo unfortunately does not work.

This is what Fantasy Flight wrote:

• All of the ability text on Eye of the Djinn would resolve before drawing skill tokens for the test. Eye of the Djinn will set up a “lasting effect” (base skill of 5 for the test) and two “delayed effects” (if you draw a Bless or Curse token, do X) that can still affect the game, but the card itself has resolved.
• Consequently, Reliable will only grant you +1 to your skills while the asset it’s attached to is resolving a triggered ability. The timing window for this modification ends when the asset it’s attached to is finished resolving—in this case, Eye of the Djinn will have finished resolving once you begin drawing tokens for the skill test, and you would revert back to having a base skill value of 5 until the end of the test.
• (This is different than if Reliable were attached to an asset with an action triggered ability, such as a weapon with a Fight action.)

Question for all our rules lawyers out there:

Does the latest Taboo stack with scope?

“This attack may target a non-Elite enemy up to one location away from its standard range, ignoring the aloof and retaliate keywords.” Taboo basically reads "Standard Range +1 Location away".

Scope as a reaction allows a Firearm to target adjacent location. Would that be considered the new standard range then and allow the Springfield plus Scope to target two locations away? WHich would be awesome and very unique

If not it would mean, you could gain basically the same effect but better with sticking the newly tabood scope to your shiny 4 or 5-xp-firearm. you would only ever take the springfield to save on some xp as the BAR or the Lightning Gun are still better in their own right. You could always take a higher value two-handed firearm and stick a scope on it for whatever xp your weapon costs +3xp for the scope. And lets face it, which guardian skims on the xp concerning the primary weapon?

Don't get me wrong. This new version stands head and shoulders above the old one. But XP should not be a concern for the guardians primary. So I would always take the best or most flexible base weapon and stick scope to it, if wanted to target adjacent. But targeting two locations away by adding a scope on top? That would really allow some unique camper playstyle in MP where you guard your team by sitting at a center location and picking everything off from a distance.

This enemy can be an annoyance with that poisoning attack. Even if you can hit the 3 Evade target reliably, that's still a loss of actions as it chases you.

The ability gain conditions cause it to stay on an Ancient location with clues, which you can potentially use to leave it behind. You won't be able to clear that location without confronting this enemy again, but it will be easier to clear all the others. You could deal with the location it guards last, or even just consider it abandoned.

Or maybe you just take the vengeance point.

This is quite an underrated card. It gives you (your ally) +1 health and + 1 sanity for $1 without the need of spending the cost of an action. In most cases, a free action is more valuable than $1. So this card fares better than Leather Coat and Cherished Keepsake, both of which are very fine cards in themselves. Trusted also cost one less than other comparisons like Leather Jacket, and it certainly fares better than Fine Clothes, a more situational card that cost an action to play. In most cases, I also like Trusted over other lv. 0 healing cards ex. (Soothing Melody) because spending actions to do passive healing is, a many have pointed out, one of the least efficient things to do in the game. Another selling point of this card which the above mentioned cards don't have is that it not only gives you more health/sanity protection but gives your ally more mileage. Putting 2 Trusted on allies such as Aquinnah all the sudden turn her into 3h/6s worrior and Beat Cop into a 5h/4s Sergeant. Trusted really maximize their power, getting more values out of their already very strong xp ability.

Winifred Habbamock loves this card. Being able to access to Track Shoes is a pretty good deal. She's using many ability cards that allow you to draw cards from your deck on top of her own ability. You will run through your whole deck many times most of the times anyway. A bigger deck means you'll take more time to cycle it and get less horror from that. Same for Patrice Hathaway

One or even two of Versatile can help to counter some nasty weaknesses as Doomed -> Accursed Fate -> The Bell Tolls or treacheries as Beyond the Veil